Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Training: Young People

Lord Browne of Belmont: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they have taken to ensure that young people gain key transferable skills in order to increase their future employment opportunities.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: This Government is taking a series of important steps to help young people gain a good broad education with transferable skills such as literacy and numeracy, as well as employability skills from work experience. This includes our reforms to GCSEs to ensure that they are more stretching and provide greater assurance of core literacy and numeracy than the old GCSEs. We are also reforming Functional Skills to improve the rigour and relevance of these qualifications as well as improving their recognition among employers. The new Functional Skills qualifications will be ready to teach in 2018. As of August 2015, the condition of funding has been revised, so all 16-18 year old full-time students starting their study programme who have a grade D GCSE or equivalent in maths or English must be enrolled on a GCSE or approved IGCSE qualification in maths or English to work towards attaining a good pass. We have also built English and maths into the heart of traineeships and apprenticeships to ensure that young people have the literacy and numeracy skills needed by employers. Our traineeship programme is supporting 16-24 year olds to gain the skills and work experience they need to be able to compete for apprenticeships and other jobs. In addition, all of the new employer-led apprenticeship standards must demonstrate acquisition of transferable skills and offer more than just training for a single job or employer. Standards must ensure that an apprentice can adapt to a variety of roles, with different employers, developing the ability to progress in their careers.

Foreign Investment in UK: Northern Ireland

Lord Browne of Belmont: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what recent discussions they have had about the work of UK Trade and Investment in promoting inward investment in Northern Ireland.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: The established relationship between UKTI and Invest Northern Ireland (INI) enables both to support each other’s efforts to achieve the shared ambition to increase trade and investment and in turn jobs and growth, this includes regular engagement at Ministerial, Chief Executive, and operational levels. For example, over the last month Lord Maude visited Northern Ireland on 28th and 29th January, including both a meeting with the Chief Executive of INI and a number of company meetings. He has also conducted one overseas visit alongside Northern Ireland Assembly Minister Bell to Canada in February.

New Businesses: Students

Lord Taylor of Warwick: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have plans to encourage universities to support students who have started, or plan to start, a business venture while at university.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: Government’s Start-Up Loans scheme supports people wanting to start a business and has provided over 35,000 loans worth over £200 million. We’re committed to supporting start-ups by cutting taxes on small businesses, extending rate relief and increasing the Employment Allowance. In Cambridge, Government has invested £4.8m in the establishment of the Sir John Bradfield Technology Centre to support business incubation on Cambridge Science Park. This is in addition to a range of other growth-enabling investments made through the £500m Greater Cambridge City Deal, the £109.1m Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough Growth Deal and a three year funding package to support development of a local business Growth Hub

UK Membership of EU: Referendums

Lord Taylor of Warwick: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their response to the results of a poll of members of the Federation of Small Businesses showing that over half of respondents felt uninformed about the EU membership referendum and needed more information.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: In line with the European Union Referendum Act 2015 and commitments made in the Houses of Parliament, the Government is publishing several public information documents ahead of the Referendum. Three of these have already been published and cover: the renegotiation settlement and the Government’s opinion thereof, the process for withdrawing from the EU in line with Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, and examples of countries that do not have membership of the European Union but do have other arrangements with the European Union. An upcoming statutory paper will also outline the rights and obligations entailed by membership of the EU. Additionally, the Chancellor has also announced that the Treasury will publish before 23 June a comprehensive analysis of our membership of a reformed EU and the alternatives, including the long-term economic costs and benefits of EU membership and the risks associated with an exit.

Property: Ownership

Lord Alton of Liverpool: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking in advance of the Global Anti-Corruption Summit in London in May to legislate to subject UK property owned by offshore companies to the same regulations as domestic companies and individuals.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: A discussion paper on proposals to require foreign companies to provide beneficial ownership information when purchasing or owning property or bidding for public contracts was published on Friday 4 March. The document has been published here: www.gov.uk/government/consultations/property-ownership-and-public-contracting-by-foreign-companies-improving-transparency and copies of the discussion paper have been placed in the libraries of both Houses.



Contracting by Foreign Companies
(PDF Document, 238.97 KB)

Department for International Development

World Bank

Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the World Bank gender policy, and of whether the bank's inspection panel has ever been guided by a gender safeguard.

Baroness Verma: The World Bank Gender Policy sets out how Bank staff should assess the gender dimensions of development in their work and is an important part of Bank’s commitment to drive progress on gender equality. The Inspection Panel assesses compliance with Bank policy including not only the Gender Policy but also with the Environmental and Social Safeguards, which includes requirements for a social assessment that may cover gender.

Ministry of Justice

UK Membership of EU

Lord Hamilton of Epsom: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether the Decision of the European Council concerning a new settlement for the UK within the EU will affect the application of the Charter of Fundamental Rights to the UK.

Lord Faulks: The Decision of the Heads of State or Government, meeting within the European Council, concerning a new settlement for the UK within the EU will not affect the application of the Charter of Fundamental Rights in the UK.

Ministry of Defence

Aegean Sea: Human Trafficking

Lord Hylton: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have plans to reinforce the Royal Navy's operations in the Aegean Sea in order to save more lives and to arrest more traffickers.

Lord Hylton: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many (1) Royal Navy vessels, and (2) vessels from other NATO members, are being deployed for search and rescue operations in the Aegean Sea; whether the orders given to those vessels include arresting traffickers; and what assessment they have made of whether the available forces are sufficient.

Earl Howe: I refer the noble Lord to the statement I made to this House on Monday 7 March (Official Report, column 1079). The Royal Navy has deployed Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) Mounts Bay and a Wildcat helicopter to support NATO activity in the Aegean Sea. These will work alongside three Home Office vessels: VOS Grace, which has been deployed since November; the cutter Protector, which is en route to the region; and a further cutter that is expected to start operations later this month. In addition to RFA Mounts Bay, there are five NATO ships on station at the moment. Canada, Germany, Greece, Italy, and Turkey have each deployed a ship. NATO ships will provide information to enable Greek and Turkish civilian authorities to intercept migrant vessels and arrest traffickers. It is not an interdiction or search and rescue operation, but RFA Mounts Bay would give assistance to any vessel it found in distress, in accordance with international obligations. With regards to sufficiency, we note the substantial contribution being made by the UK and other members of NATO, but we always look to see what further contributions members of the Alliance can make. 



Refugees and Migrants
(Word Document, 35.12 KB)

Home Office

Deportation: EEA Nationals

Lord McColl of Dulwich: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what processes are in place, and what action they have taken, to ensure that EEA nationals who have made applications for discretionary leave to remain (DLR) as confirmed victims of human trafficking are not considered for administrative removal until a decision has been made about their application for DLR.

Lord McColl of Dulwich: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what guidance regarding the rights and treatment of victims of human trafficking has been issued to Home Office staff responsible for making decisions about the administrative removal of EEA nationals, and what specific guidance has been given to caseworkers about the criteria for determining whether or not the administrative removal of a confirmed victim of human trafficking who is an EEA national is proportionate.

Lord Bates: The processes and guidance in place relating to the factors to take into account in deciding whether to remove a person from the United Kingdom, including EEA nationals and potential victims of trafficking, are found within “Chapter 50: (EEA) EEA administrative removals” of the Enforcement Instructions and Guidance published on gov.uk.The Home Office will consider exceptional and compassionate individual circumstances that may justify leave on a discretionary basis. The “Discretionary leave” Asylum Instruction on gov.uk gives guidance to Home Office staff on considering whether to grant discretionary leave (DL).No action is taken to enforce the administrative removal of an EEA national identified as a potential victim of trafficking where their case is still being considered in accordance with the “Discretionary leave” Asylum Instruction. However, DL is not normally granted to EEA nationals (or their family members) where they have free movement rights under EU law and are exercising those treaty rights.Guidance to immigration enforcement staff on how to identify and manage victims of trafficking is provided in “Chapter 9: identifying victims of trafficking” of Enforcement Instructions and Guidance. “Chapter 53: extenuating circumstances” gives guidance to immigration enforcement staff how to consider any extenuating circumstances. Section 4 of “Chapter 50: (EEA) EEA administrative removals” sets out the criteria that apply in considering whether it is right and reasonable to remove an EEA national and whether it is proportionate given all the circumstances of the case.

Refugees: Children

Lord Hylton: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to encourage families in the UK to sponsor, foster or adopt unaccompanied refugee children who reach this country.

Lord Bates: In response to the many generous offers of help, the Home Secretary has announced that we will be establishing a register of people and organisations that can provide support for the settlement of refugees.We have asked the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to make an assessment of the number and needs of unaccompanied children in conflict regions and advise on when it is in the best interests of the child to be resettled in the UK. The UNHCR has already been clear that these are likely to be exceptional cases. This is because it is not uncommon in an emergency situation for children to be temporarily separated from their parents or other family members who may be looking for them. Efforts to reunite children with relatives or extended family members, who may be looking for them in the region, should be preferred to premature attempts to organise adoption. Some lone refugee children may come to the UK for temporary care, but overall our support is for them to be reunited with parents or other relatives wherever possible.More information on what the public can do to help Syrian refugees can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/syria-refugees-what-you-can-do-to-help--2

Asylum: EU Law

Baroness Jowell: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much has been spent from the public purse on defending the case The Queen on the application ZAT, IAJ, KAM, AAM, MAT, MAJ and LAM v Secretary of State for the Home Department, and how much they estimate will be spent on their appeal.

Lord Bates: The Secretary of State’s legal costs currently stand at £53,747.82. It is not possible to estimate how much will be spent on the appeal at this juncture.

Refugees: Children

Lord Alton of Liverpool: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the difficulties that refugee children face in accessing legal advice or paying the fee required to register their citizenship; whether legal aid is available for those purposes; what the current fee is for registering citizenship; what proportion of that fee represents profit accumulated by the Home Office; whether they have plans to increase that fee, and if so, by how much.

Lord Bates: Civil legal aid remains available for advice and representation in relation to applications and appeals for asylum. The majority of unaccompanied refugee children applying for permission to remain in the UK will be seeking asylum, and legal aid will therefore be available. For non-asylum immigration matters and citizenship applications, legal aid is generally not available, although may be provided exceptionally where required by the European Convention on Human Rights.The Government has committed to review the legal aid provisions within the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 within 3-5 years of implementation.The current fee for a child to register as a British citizen is £749. The estimated unit cost to process this application is currently £223. For 2016/17 the fee will increase to £936 on 18th March 2016 with a rise in estimated unit cost to £272. The power to set fees that are higher than the cost of processing applications is contained within The Immigration Act 2014, which provides that the Home Office may take into account not just the cost of processing an application, but also the benefits and entitlements available to an individual if their application is successful and the cost of exercising any other function in connection with immigration or nationality.The Home Office does not provide exceptions to the requirement to pay application fees for naturalisation or registration as a British citizen. This is because the Home Office considers that citizenship is not a necessary pre-requisite to enable a person to exercise his or her rights in the UK in line with the European Convention on Human Rights.British nationality applications are not mandatory and many individuals with Indefinite Leave to Remain decide not to apply. A person who has Indefinite Leave to Remain may continue to live in the UK and travel abroad using their existing valid passport and residence permit, visa or travel document.

EU Nationals: Social Security Benefits

Lord Green of Deddington: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the remarks by Lord Faulks on 2 March (HL Deb, col 928), whether they now plan to make an estimate of the likely impact on migration from the rest of the EU of the restrictions to in-work benefits that were agreed in the decision of the European Council concerning a new settlement for the UK within the EU.

Lord Bates: The Decision of the European Council concerning a new settlement for the UK recognises, for the first time, that different social security systems across Member States can attract EU workers. Government figures show that around 40 per cent of recent EEA migrants are in households supported by the benefit system. On average, families with a recent EEA migrant claim almost £6,000 per year in tax credits, and of these, around 8,000 families receive more than £10,000.We remain committed to reforms across the whole of Government to reduce net migration to sustainable levels and to reform the immigration system so that it works in the best interests of our country. We will continue to restore a sense of fairness and to reduce the current very high level of population flows into the UK - now and in the future.

Asylum

Lord Hylton: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the reply by Lord Bates on 2 March (HL Deb, col 824), what qualifications they consider to be adequate for persons conducting the substantive interviews of asylum applicants, with authority to recommend acceptance or rejection of their claims; and what assessment they have made of whether gap-year and undergraduate students, after five weeks of training, have sufficient maturity and empathy to take such decisions.

Lord Bates: Decision makers working on asylum casework are graded at Executive Officer level except in the suspended Detained Fast Track operation where the predominate grade is Higher Executive Officer due to the requirement on some decision makers to also present appeals. The general entry requirement for direct recruitment to either grade is a minimum of 2 GCE A Level passes A-C and 5 GCSE passes including Mathematics and English. We have also employed staff on temporary contracts but have required them to have a minimum 2:2 Degree, preferably in law.We recruit high performing students from various universities as asylum decision makers on fixed term appointments and since 2009 have employed 11 law undergraduates of whom 2 are still employed. Applicants send in their CVs, and these are used to inform an initial sift of applications. Successful candidates are then invited to a competency based interview with Home Office staff which tests their maturity and suitability to carry out the role.At the end of the 5 week training, that all decision makers receive, there is a six month period of mentoring, continued assessment and quality analysis of newly qualified decision maker’s work that identifies whether an individual is performing the role to the required quality standards. Before any individual is signed off their initial probationary period and confirmed in role they must be considered to be performing the role to the previously referenced quality standards.

Slavery: Children

Baroness Doocey: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many cases of child labour and child domestic servitude have been recorded by the National Referral Mechanism in the last three years.

Baroness Doocey: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the definition of domestic servitude used by the National Referral Mechanism when the victim is a child.

Baroness Doocey: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how the National Referral Mechanism applies the definition of forced labour when the victim is a child.

Baroness Doocey: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many cases of domestic servitude have been prosecuted in the last three years where the victim was a child.

Baroness Doocey: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many cases of domestic servitude have been recorded where the victims have included more than one person from the same family.

Lord Bates: Data on the number of child cases of forced labour or domestic servitude recorded through the National Referral Mechanism is already publically available on the National Crime Agency website and can be found here: www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/publications/national-referral-mechanism-statistics.The National Referral Mechanism is designed to gather evidence in order to determine whether someone is considered to be a victim of ‘slavery, servitude and forced or compulsory labour’ or ‘human trafficking’ in line with the offences set out in the Modern Slavery Act 2015. Whether an individual is considered to be a victim of either of these offences in the form of domestic servitude or forced labour will be determined on the indicators present and the facts of each case. Additional consideration is given to the particular vulnerabilities of children and their inability to consent.Information on how many cases of domestic servitude have been prosecuted where the victim was a child or how many cases of domestic servitude have been recorded which involved more than one person from the same family is not recorded centrally.

Human Trafficking: Prosecutions

Baroness Doocey: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether anyone has been prosecuted for human trafficking offences in circumstances where the victim has been found in a cannabis factory.

Lord Bates: The information requested is not held centrally and could only be provided by reviewing individual case files, at disproportionate cost.

HM Treasury

Credit Cards: EU Law

Lord Morris of Aberavon: To ask Her Majesty’s Government which particular EU directive or regulation has led to banks, credit companies and stores reviewing their loyalty schemes in order to differentiate between points earned from transactions inside and outside an institution, and how the UK voted when that matter was decided in the Council of Ministers.

Lord O'Neill of Gatley: The Government has been determined to tackle the unfair fees being charged to UK businesses for processing card transactions through the Interchange Fee Regulation, which came into force in December 2015. In order to make sure that consumers as well as businesses benefit as a result of the Interchange Fee Regulation, the UK negotiated through the revised Payment Services Directive capping or, in some cases banning completely, the charges that some businesses ask of customers who pay by debit or credit card. We are aware that some banks and other companies are cutting back on their customer rewards packages to recoup costs they face as a result of the interchange fee caps. However, this is a commercial decision on the part of these companies - not all firms have followed suit.

Child Benefit: EU Nationals

Lord Hamilton of Epsom: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their policy with regard to the payment of child benefits to EU migrants (1) who have been resident in the UK for fewer than four years, and (2) whose children are also resident in the UK.

Lord O'Neill of Gatley: I refer the honourable member to the recent UK White Paper ‘The Best of Both Worlds: the United Kingdom’s special status in a reformed European Union’, available on the gov.uk website. The UK’s settlement will mean that Child Benefit paid to EU nationals living here, but whose children live outside the UK, will no longer be paid at UK rates but be paid at a rate that reflects conditions – including the standard of living and Child Benefit paid – of the country where the children live. Eligibility rules for Child Benefit for individuals moving to the UK can be found on the gov.uk website.

Motor Vehicles: Taxation

Lord Hunt of Chesterton: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to introduce changes to make motor vehicle tax proportionate to the emissions of gaseous and particulate pollutants from motor vehicle engines.

Lord O'Neill of Gatley: Motoring taxation generally reflects the environmental impact of driving. In particular, Vehicle Excise Duty and Company Car Tax vary by CO2 emissions and reduced rates of fuel duty are available for low-emissions fuels. From 1 September 2015, all new cars sold in the UK must be compliant with new European-wide air pollutant standards, known as Euro 6 standards, which include gaseous and particulate pollutants. The combination of new Euro 6 standards and tougher vehicle approval regulation for air quality pollutants known as Real World Driving Emissions Testing (RDE), which come into force from 2017, will significantly reduce air pollutant emissions from all new vehicles including diesel models.